Unfortunately for many teams, us included, the pressure was on to either maintain a current position or better it in the National Championships. Currently leading the National championships we cannot afford to do anything stupid which would cause us any failure to complete, and with the fast conditions I was getting very nervous!
Having had a good full breakfast at 8am the early start of 11am did nothing for my stomach as we headed out to the muster area! We hadn’t been out in the boat for a few weeks so I gave it a bit of blast to the muster area which filled me with confidence. We had had a few problems with the set up which were now addressed and the boat felt amazing. However, after this confidence giving blast we then had to endure the torturous waiting around whilst the buoys were laid for the race. I could feel my breakfast bubbling away and the nerves set in!!!
Fortunately, Chris Strickland and his RIB ‘Seahound’ got us off to the usual quick start and one of the most amazing races of my career started. We all set off at an amazing pace. The start comprised of Formula One and Open boats (hardboats as well as RIB’s) and the exciting new V24’s whose concept of a straight line is sometimes original! The green flag went up, the red mist came down and off we all went. Fortunately we had a great position and were pretty much on the edge of the start line which gave us loads of room and no messy water. I looked across and could see about 20 boats all doing roughly 70mph + and it was an awesome sight.
We all shot off and as is becoming customary it was Max Walker in his 4 litre Batboat.com, Stuart Anthony with Charles Hawkes-Williams in R21 and ourselves who were ahead of the rest. I always find it difficult to find the first buoy as there is always a lot of chop and spray from the other boats but we came across the lap gate and with relief I could already see the next yellow buoy which meant I could already start planning for the next turn. This was going to be fast racing and tactics as well as speed would be the way to win.
Max Walker and Mick Spong in their 4 litre batboat shot off in a completely different direction to everyone else for a while as he tried to find the yellow marker, so lost his lead position briefly which meant it was us and Stuart fighting for the lead.
The sea was almost mirror calm and we were travelling at 83mph + which was causing the boats to chine, a smooth ride for the Co-drivers but the drivers were going to have to concentrate hard to keep control of their boats at these speeds. To lose concentration for one instance could at best lose valuable mph and at worst cause an accident and at those speeds …well it’s not worth thinking about.
By now we were catching Stuart but my cornering had been poor and he had a lead of about 40 metres on us. However, I knew if I kept my head we would slowly be able to erode this without going mad.
Within about 10 minutes though we had nearly collided with Max. He had come from nowhere, catching up after his error on the course. We both reached the furthest mark at pretty much the same time and both turned sharply. Both drivers, suffering from extreme red mist refused to give way to the other and managed to miss each other by about 1 cm! As we turned the buoy Max’s bow was by my side and for the first time ever I actually screamed because I really thought he had hit us! I was waiting for the dull thud of boats and wondered how far he would bounce off the tubes!! Fortunately, both of us handled the situation well, Max throttled off and I put my foot down and the boats missed each other but wow it was close!
A number of conversations followed in the pits later that day between both teams. I think we both need reminding that dodgems are not funny at 80mph! I have to admit though, it was damned more exciting than those computer arcade games because it was for real.
So we continued on, unfortunately the gap had widened slightly due to this unfortunate incident. But I knew if we kept up with Stuart in R21 we would be able to narrow the gap, particularly on the longer Lap ‘C’ which is where we could get the boat really flying.
We continued to race and on the shorter laps we just focused on getting the navigation spot on, which Mike has down to a fine art and keeping the pressure on Stuart. This meant making sure that my cornering was spot on and whilst overtaking the F2 boats, I didn’t put us in a position where we would be forced to cross any wash unnecessarily. There was no point in trying to overtake until we had the longer legs and the additional speed would enable us to close the gap.
As we continued to race we came across three overturned boats which unusually included 2 RIB’s who had turned too tightly. One had barrel rolled, the other had just gone upside down! Luckily no one was hurt but a lot of damage was done to the boats and their engines. The third was a 2 litre batboat, the second of the season. He not only turned the boat over but took the wing off as well!
By now we were catching Stuart and I was practically standing on the throttle to get maximum speed. Trimming was the key to the speed but not too much. As soon as I over trimmed out then the impact would be a boat flopping from side to side which sometimes you could drive through other times you couldn’t. As the fuel was burnt up both boats were doing speeds well over 83mph and it was getting very exciting.
Then the last long laps were upon us and I knew it was now or never to overtake. My nerves were tingling as I floored it and whilst the boat was often out of shape, we just drove through anything, wash, chop a couple of rollers (where did they come from) as now was the time to close that gap.
The most memorable moment for me was on the longest leg, some 7 nautical miles. This is where we finally overtook R21. We turned around the marker buoy and were now only about 6 feet from R21’s stern. Stupidly I turned inside him and hooked slightly getting sprayed by his wash…very stupid. I floored it and although driving blind for a moment through the spray we somehow didn’t lose any ground.
I came out of the turn, trimmed as high as I dared and off we went. By now both boats were pretty much side by side and the hulls about 3 feet away from each other. At speeds of 85mph this was the most exhilarating time either Mike or I had experienced to date in the boat.. It was just incredible. We remained like this for a few minutes and both drivers fought to keep the high speeds and not get too much out of shape and lose speed. I wondered if we would ever go past as Stuart put up a good battle. But slowly we edged past, we were both shouting at the boat to go faster!!!
Then we were past him and wow what a buzz, we were now a whole length past him and he was struggling to keep the gap like that. We came into the next turn mark and I throttled off as late as possible…after all its 'he who dares wins'!! We slowed just on the turn and I risked a quick tight turn, the boat held beautifully and we shot off.
We carried on at a great pace and now we were in front (Max Walker having lost an engine). However, suddenly Stuart was no longer to be seen…..
We started on the next smaller lap and as we rounded one of the markers Mike called out that Stuart had overturned his boat when trying to catch us. I could not believe it and I have to admit my heart stopped for a moment as I dreaded the worse. Fortunately Mike had seen them sitting on the hull so knew they were OK.
At this point the chequered flag was raised and we were declared both F1 and overall winners…what a race. With an average speed of 82.79 mph we were very happy!
All in all the day’s racing was tremendous with such competitive teams pushing their boats to the limit and beyond in very fast racing conditions.
The Poole Powerboat Grand Prix is the next championship qualifier in the National series. Who knows what will happen next!